State Department: U.S. Working To Prevent Child Trafficking In Haiti

Washington (CNN) — The United States will work with the Haitian government and with international and private aid groups to protect Haitian children who might be at risk because they were orphaned or separated from their parents by the earthquake, the State Department said Thursday.

“We have concerns about traffickers, we have concerns about pedophiles,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said at his midday briefing. “We’ve seen a couple of cases of those in recent days. So this is just something we are working collectively with those organizations that are actively trying to help children, people on the ground, be alert for this kind of danger.”

Asked whether any children had been brought illegally to the United States, he said, “Not to my knowledge.”